Listen, you can talk to me about anything
by luvtheheaven
Summary: My take on how things should have played out between Drew & Mark in season 4 episode 13 "Small Victories". Takes the two school hallway scenes as canon and expands on them from there in an AU way. Rated T only because the topics of pregnancy and abortion come up, as they did in the actual episode of the show. And I do ship Mark/Sarah by the way but this fic isn't really about that.
1. School Hallway Interactions

_**Author's Note:**__ So a huge special thanks goes to Insideavoice, who has written two heartbreakingly beautiful Drew from Parenthood fics that I read and adored. If you haven't read them yet, they should be easy enough to find since there are only 8 (well now 9 since mine is up! Ha ha.) Parenthood fics on this site about Drew. I highly recommend them. She's a very talented writer._

_Insideavoice not only is an awesome writer, but agreed to help me out and beta this for me – my first ever Parenthood fic! ;) Thank you for your proofreading etc. help this time around. ;)_

_**Feel free to skip past my insanely long author's note now if you want and get to my story.**__ I promise there's nothing super important that you need to read here. Um… I actually added bold near the end of this author's note if you want to read that section before reading my story though. But if you want to read about all of my Parenthood thoughts and feelings… please just don't complain to me that my author's note is way too long. I know. That's who I am. I am also a vidder and often when I upload my fanvideos to YouTube I fill up the entire space YouTube allows for a video description. I can't imagine being one of those vidders who just uploads it and writes absolutely zero in the description box, just like I can't imagine writing a new fic, especially not my first one for a fandom, and not writing an author's note that is longer than quite a few oneshots on here. :P This one is longer than an author's note possibly has ever been for one of my fics though. I'm not generally THIS crazy and wordy. But whatever. I felt like writing all this. Read it or don't, it's up to you :D_

_So now onto the rest of the unnecessarily long author's note:_

_Drew has probably always been my favorite character on the show, although I have moments where I love each and every one. Except maybe Sydney. They have not made me fall for her at all yet, sorry Syd. I know you're just a little girl and I should find you cute or something but I pretty much never have. :P But everyone else is great and in fanfic land I bet Sydney could be wonderful too. But Drew always owned my heart. I really relate to him, in some ways, I think. I'm a girl and there are definite differences, but all in all I really do relate to him. Mark is definitely one of my favorites too, and I wish he was a star of the show already. I'm writing this fic right after 4x13 "Small Victories" has aired, and I avoid spoilers at all costs, so please, don't spoil anything for me! I don't even watch promos/trailers for the next ep. I watch the episodes as soon as they air though so once they've aired, you may talk about those episodes right away. Anyway at this point of the show, I'm hoping Mark & Sarah get back together, permanently. I miss Mark. But I have no clue if the writers are planning to take the show in that direction or say goodbye to Mark Cyr forever. I really couldn't tell you._

_I just checked, and there are only 7 fanfics on this site containing "M. Cyr" aka my beloved Mark played by the gorgeous and oh so sweet Jason Ritter. And all of them are Sarah & Mark fics. None are Mark/anyone else. So… this should be a first for this site! A Mark/Drew interaction fanfic. I hope you all like it. I got inspired to write something for this episode thinking it'd be a Drew fic but I ended up really wanting to show Mark's point of view and perspective as well. So I compromised and showed both points of view. I think it should work okay. ;)_

_Anyway… I um, got unintentionally spoiled that Amy would get pregnant weeks ago and I'd been waiting for this episode ever since. I'd been excited for it. And it didn't really disappoint me. I'm surprised that they actually took it the direction of the abortion, only because this show is all about the concept of "parenthood" and teen-parenthood would be an interesting topic for them to explore. ;) However, I'm not exactly *that* surprised, since the Bravermans are quite non-religious and they've made that clear explicitly in two separate Crosby-episodes I believe. And maybe even when Joel & Julia talk to Sydney about heaven it was kind of explored too. And Adam's comment about the annoying person who told him (in regards to Kristina's cancer) "God only gives you what you can handle" or something like that… I mean they have a fairly secular POV on this show, so I shouldn't be too surprised._

_I expected, since we don't know much about Amy's character, that Amy and her perfect parents/family might turn out to be Christian and therefore she'd be anti-abortion (not that there aren't some "pro-choice" Christians… but just Christianity is the main justification for being "pro-life" in this country, I believe) and Drew would be forced into becoming a father. Of course in my imagined scenario, Drew would be the best 17 or 18-year old boy possible in this type of situation, because I mean he's Drew. Right? :P And actually, this concept I totally could write a whole long multi-chapter fic about lol. If anyone wants me to write that, let me know. I might be inspired enough. Explore what the show could be if Drew became a teen father._

_Instead the show decided to make Drew the basically anti-abortion person in the relationship, and I was surprised but it was done well. Thinking about it now, Jason Katims might really like exploring this type of situation because he explored it with Luke (Matt Lauria's character) and Becky on Friday Night Lights (Matt Lauria is the actor who plays Amber's boyfriend Ryan on Parenthood), with Luke being the more anti-abortion one but the girl feeling a bit more pro-choice about all of it. Love Friday Night Lights. I saw all 5 seasons on Netflix this past summer for the first time, and part of what convinced me to check it out was loving Parenthood. Gosh if you haven't seen the show you're missing out. So much is epic there. I thought I'd write my first FNL fic before I wrote my first Parenthood one, but apparently not._

_So back to this episode of Parenthood. I simply ADORED the way Drew reacted to everything, and especially to the idea of Mark witnessing what happened while at school and being concerned. I think my love for both Mark and Drew kind of make it so that I'll probably love whatever they do on the show and I just adore whenever they have lines lmao, unless it's a Mark/Sarah fight and then it's just annoying… but anyway my personal beliefs on abortion or religion or any of it don't matter when it comes to me writing fanfiction, because I want to get inside a character's head and give you all their point of view on it. My dad didn't think it made sense that Drew would be so essentially "pro-life" or whatever you want to call it. But I wanted to write a fic explaining maybe how it could make sense._

_I also didn't really like Mark talking to Drew only once about what happened and then going to find Sarah – I feel like since this *is* what happened on the show, and Sarah told Drew what Mark did, Drew should've felt really betrayed, and I wish we'd had a Drew/Mark confrontation after Sarah talked to Drew in his bedroom. I maybe could write that oneshot too, if anyone is interested in it. I think I might go crazy exploring all of the possibilities with this episode. One of my friends on twitter would like me to write what happened after Drew showed up at the guest house Sarah's sleeping in in tears, what he actually said and whatnot, so I said after the next episode (4x14) airs, I'll write that scene, just for her. ;)_

_Anyway… I feel like Mark would've been smarter and not gone straight to Sarah, not like that. For Drew's sake. Sure he wanted an excuse to come see Sarah, like Hank said, but I think he should've been the awesome teacher that he is and considered Drew's feelings and privacy first and foremost. If something was wrong and he thought Sarah was the only one that could help her son maybe it could make sense but I think he had no clue what exactly was wrong, so idk. It just felt a little wrong to me. And I think Sarah would've been smarter and not just believed Drew (we're just stressed about college applications) quite so easily… or if she was oblivious like on the show, I think near the end when she talked to Mark, he should've been more skeptical. He could've even made Sarah upset by doubting her parenting skills - because Mark knows it was not just about college applications. I mean come on._

_Anyway… wow I can't believe I had that much ranting to do about this one storyline on this one episode of Parenthood that in all honesty I loved, despite everything I just complained about. I still loved it just the way they did it, more or less. It worked and I really hope it's a fairly big storyline next episode too! :P_

_**So now, about this fic of mine here:**_

_**This was originally going to be a oneshot, but I decided I have too much to say, so I'm turning it into a multi-chapter piece. It'll still be entirely based on episode 4x13 "Small Victories" and the Drew & Mark storyline in it, but with my own twists. It probably will be only 2 to 4 chapters long, depending on where I decide to go with it. I'll let you know when it's the last chapter. **_

_**I've started off the fic with the first scene in the school hallway, from Mark's point of view, and then the second hallway scene between Drew & Mark from Drew's point of view… and I added to both. Everything else that happened after that in the episode between Sarah/Drew, Mark/Drew, and Mark/Sarah has been altered because in my imagination, this would've been a great way for it all to have played out. Chapter 1 is more canon than the rest of the fic that will be more AU.**_

_**I don't ever have both characters' points of views at the same time. I do page breaks and it should be clear after a page break which character's point of view that section of this fic is supposed to be, even if the whole thing is in third person. It should make sense when you read it!**_

_**Ask me if you have any questions, and please if you read it, don't forget to review! I hope at least a few people enjoy this. :D**_

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Chapter 1: School Hallway Interactions

It was a Monday morning, the first day of another work week, and Mark was glad to be back at school. Ever since breaking up with Sarah, weekends had become way more unpleasant for him than the weekdays. He hated to admit it, but he didn't have any truly close friends here in Berkeley. For the past couple years the beautiful Braverman woman had occupied so much of his time. He hadn't found it necessary to make an effort to get closer to the other English teachers or anyone like that in a platonic way. Ever since breaking up with Sarah right before Christmas, he found himself strangely at a loss for what to do with his free time on Saturdays and Sundays. He got cable installed just for Drew, but since he was no longer a part of his life, even turning on the television brought up bad memories and crushed hopes for what could have been between him and Sarah's family. Reading was always a good option, but everything made him think of Sarah in some way or another. The empty apartment and everything about his personal life right now just made him feel so lonely, but when he was at school, for about seven hours a day, he could forget about all of that.

It was impossible to feel lonely in this large high school which contained over three-thousand students, in the mornings especially, when the kids chatted away. Monday mornings were some of the most pleasant, because the kids often had so much to share with their friends who they hadn't seen since Friday. Mark casually glanced outside of his classroom, as he often did before the homeroom bell rang. He took in the atmosphere and enjoyed watching the flow of students in the hallway from all four grades mixing and interweaving in a somewhat predictable and organized type of teenage chaos. He only knew the students he had in his English classes. He kept his eyes pierced specifically for any of those kids he knew, as was his habit. He enjoyed simply observing them, since in his classroom he didn't get to see the same side of their personality that he saw when watching them with their peers in the hallway.

Drew often caught his eye, more so than all of his students did. Drew was the only one Mark had actually never taught yet still knew. Drew was special, different than all of the other kids, because Drew… Drew almost officially became his stepson, and he had really liked the idea of that. When he broke up with Sarah, he hadn't actually anticipated how much he'd mourn the loss of Drew. As much as he wanted to have a baby of his own with Sarah, being a father-like figure to Drew would've been nice in its own way, too. He interacted with teenagers all the time as a teacher, but getting the chance to come home to one was a very new experience for him… one that had been truly enjoyable for him.

When he spotted Drew in the hallway this Monday morning, the boy was walking with his girlfriend, Amy, which was not surprising. What was surprising to Mark was that their usual smiles seemed to have completely disappeared. Drew and Amy were always so cute together whenever he'd previously seen them in school. Amy was one of his best students, and he was so happy for them both. Their smiles reminded him of the first time he had been in love. Even catching Drew and Amy "in the act" had reminded him a bit about that relationship of his, when everything about romantic relationships had been oh so very new and exciting. He wished only the best for them. He was aware of a brief "broken-up" period for them earlier this same school year, but still… they had never looked quite like this in the school hallway.

Amy seemed fairly upset, although from where Mark stood, he couldn't honestly tell either way. Drew, the boy who usually barely said two words to anyone, spoke quite quickly to her. Seeing Drew with a lot to say scared him more than a crying high school girl would. It was hard to explain, but it was true. Some of the poor hormonal girls would get teary over just about anything, but he knew Drew well, regardless of the fact that the kid would no longer be becoming his stepson. He watched them closely. They paused on their journey to their homeroom classes, standing beside a set of lockers, getting quite close to the classroom door where Mark stood, but they didn't notice him. They perhaps were fighting? A girl interrupted them, but it seemed like they hardly noticed. Amy started to walk away from Drew when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back in. It almost looked like Drew had done something to hurt Amy, like he had to explain himself or apologize profusely or something, but Mark couldn't imagine what the boy could have done. He simply couldn't imagine Drew cheating on her or anything like that. Amy lingered now, listening to what her boyfriend had to say. Mark tried his hardest to overhear what they were saying overtop of the other students' voices, regardless of how much of an invasion of their privacy eavesdropping might be. Call him immoral, but Mark wasn't simply curious at this moment. He felt truly concerned for both of them.

"It's gonna be okay," Drew told her comfortingly.

"How can you even…?" he heard Amy reply, even though he could only see the back of her head. Drew, Mark could tell, seemed confused. "No," Amy told him, pushing his kind hands off of her. "Drew, it's not gonna be okay."

This time when she turned around, Mark could see her very close to tears and clearly more upset than he'd ever seen her. She walked away quickly, right past where Mark stood, and he couldn't help but follow her trail with his eyes, shocked and confused as to what was happening between the two kids. What wasn't going to be okay? He looked back toward Drew, who seemed to immediately realize that the man had witnessed the whole exchange. Drew's eyes went wide for a moment, and Mark couldn't shake the feeling that Drew was afraid Mark knew what they had been talking about. Drew walked away, and Mark tried not to think too much more of it. At least not now, when there was really not much he could do about anything. He'd wait to think more about the whole situation until Amy was in his class for fourth period. Then, while the kids were busy with a class-work assignment, he might take a moment to make sure Amy seemed alright. Perhaps he would even offer to help if it seemed appropriate. All Mark knew right then and there was that something serious was going on between the teenagers, and he would feel guilty if he just let it go.

* * *

Drew went to his first class of the day, Physics, as if everything was normal. To most of his teachers, he felt sure he appeared to be just fine - his usual quiet self. They had no idea that he was much more distracted on this particular Monday than on all previous Mondays… of his entire life. Not raising his hand in a science class on an average day had more to do with his shyness than actually not knowing the answers, but for once he wasn't even paying enough attention to know what questions were posed. He remembered Amy mentioning that she had a Spanish quiz that morning, and he hoped for her sake that she would be able to focus on it, in a stark contrast to his current difficulties.

His thoughts jumped all over the place. First he worried about what Mark - or well, Mr. Cyr - might have overheard. It had taken him forever to get used to calling the man by his first name and now he had to get used to him being Mr. Cyr again… and nothing else. Drew hated how his mother had been unable to make that relationship last, especially since it had taken him so long to get used to the idea of it. As soon as he was finally ready for the man to be family, his mom had moved on to some other man.

He felt kind of grateful, however, to be able to move back into his grandparents' house, so he could be closer to Amy. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, so did other things, like memories of all the times they'd been able to get away with having sex more easily the past couple of months because they lived so close to each other and could just walk over to the other's house. He tried to remember if there was a time they'd been careless. Amy was on the pill now, but had only been on it for maybe a month? He tried to figure out where they went wrong. He felt like an idiot, like he must have done something wrong. And now Amy was pregnant. The beautiful, sweet, wonderful girl he loved… who knew him better than anyone in the world, better than his mother or sister… had a baby growing inside of her that she didn't remotely want.

He became consumed by overwhelming feelings of empathy for what she must have been dealing with for who knows how long. When did she first suspect she was pregnant? Had she been keeping her fears secret from him the last time they hung out? He wondered what she was thinking. Did she want to have an abortion? She seemed so sure that everything would _not_ be okay. That made him think that _maybe_ she was already expecting to go through with all nine months of the pregnancy. Or however many were left. He had no idea how far along into the pregnancy she was. He really should've asked. Or maybe she didn't even know. He had so many other thoughts too; his dad was never the greatest father to his sister nor to him. He made a promise years ago, to no one in particular, that if he ever had a child, he'd be a better dad. He'd never expected to have to take on that kind of responsibility while still only in high school though.

All of a sudden the bell rang, marking the end of his last class, but Drew barely heard it. The whole day had gone by this way, in a kind of blur. It took a few seconds for him to register in his mind the fact that everyone around him was grabbing their books and standing up and rushing out of the room, anxious to go home. He slowly got up and made an effort to remember what his usual routine was. He had to go to his locker and grab his coat and put away most of his books, and make sure he had the right ones for his homework that evening. He went through the motions, his mind still a million miles away. He used his locker combination, then opened the door. He finished what he needed to do. Once the task was completed, however, he just stood there, staring, completely forgetting that he should be closing his locker and proceeding on his way home. He needed to talk to Amy about this, way more than they already had, and he desperately needed to do so now. He could not think about anything else. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to focus enough to drive the few minutes it took to get back home.

He thought he heard his name being spoken, but it felt far away, and it took him far too long to realize what was happening. Someone was standing right there, next to him and his locker, waiting for him to respond. He closed his locker quickly, and was suddenly face to face with Mark – or well, Mr. Cyr. Drew was too surprised to even know what to think.

"Hi," Mark said.

"Hey," he replied.

"How's it going?"

"It's fine," Drew answered, realizing that he was saying it a bit too quickly. It was like a reflex; the more "not fine" something was, the quicker he'd blurt out, "It's fine." And today of all days… "it" was everything but fine.

"Is everything okay?" Mark quickly replied, clearly not buying Drew's response. "Um…" Mark hesitated, then glanced around the hallway nervously for a moment before continuing, "…with Amy and everything? It looked like you guys seemed really upset this morning."

There was a part of Drew that wanted to tell the kind man everything, he really did. He instantly could tell the man had good intentions and genuinely wanted to help. Much louder in Drew's mind, however, was the part screaming, "Run away; as quickly as possible!" He needed to get away from the man who had, not quite a whole year ago, broken through his protective walls. In that diner, Mark had let him feel comfortable enough to open up, which had resulted in possibly the most embarrassing moment of Drew's entire life… when he had cried right in front of him.

With that fateful evening in mind, Drew's desire to escape Mark's kindness and make it out of the school in one piece overpowered all else, and before Mark had even finished his sentence, Drew was already interrupting.

"Yeah. I know, I… It's fine, though." Drew wished the man would just let it drop.

"Okay," Mark replied.

Drew began to walk away, hoping he had successfully evaded whatever had been about to happen. He needed to go home… he needed to see Amy.

"Well, no, wait, Drew. Wait, I… um…." Mark wasn't letting him leave. "It just seemed like it was more than a… a fight."

Hearing this, Drew wasn't sure how he was going to convince Mr. Cyr of his lie that everything was fine. He hated lying, but he also hated people who pried when _clearly_ he just wanted to be left alone in this moment.

"Yeah," Drew replied, shrugging. "I don't know. It was…" Drew started, considering explaining that maybe Mark was right, it wasn't a fight, but they were still fine anyway. He was interrupted though.

"And then Amy didn't… show up for class."

Drew was shocked to hear this, but tried not to let it show too much.

"Um…." He wasn't sure what he should say to Mark. "Yeah, I don't know… I don't know where she went. I- I don't- I'm not sure…" Drew stammered. Mark interrupted him again.

"Well, I'm not mad. That's not why I'm… bringing this up. But, Amy _never_ misses class, so I guess I'm just more concerned."

"Yeah, I don't know. I don't-" Drew was repeating himself, not sure of what else to say. He was concerned about Amy too, but he didn't want to tell Mark that. He shrugged once more, not wanting to repeat his words yet again. He hoped it would reinforce that message. He truly had no idea where his girlfriend would have disappeared to in the middle of the school day.

Mark stared back at Drew, and Drew felt like the man was trying desperately to read his mind. Mark seemed to be able to tell he was lying, and they both stood there for a moment, silently, neither one getting what they wanted. Drew still was anxious to escape, but Mark was acting like he hadn't yet gotten what he'd been hoping for out of this conversation. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly while looking at Drew, as if squinting might help him see into Drew's soul more easily. Drew struggled to give off the right vibes to convince Mark to give up, but he knew he was failing miserably. He was even squirming. Why couldn't he just stand still and seem calmer?

"Listen, you can talk to me about anything," Mark said, and Drew realized from his tone that this was his parting remark. Drew snatched up the opportunity to get away as quickly as he could.

"Alright well, cool. Thanks." He finally walked in the opposite direction, grateful that Mark wasn't stopping him. As he left, he considered the words though, and took them to heart. He meant it when he thanked him. It was really nice of him to be so concerned, however annoying it also might be. It was comforting in and of itself to know that Mark cared about him enough to notice what had happened in the hallway between his girlfriend and him that morning, and to truly not be angry about Amy missing class, but merely worried. As he climbed into the driver's seat of his car, Drew found himself wishing his mom really was going to marry Mr. Cyr. He wished it more than he ever had before. He never cared much about his mom's love life, or at least he tried not to care. He'd had his heart set on his parents eventually getting back together for so long that he'd never thought anything even remotely positive about the idea of his mom dating someone else, and especially not the concept of her marrying another man. But now… Drew realized what his mom had seen in Mark, and wondered why he hadn't seen it sooner. Mark was this genuine and caring man. If Amy had this baby, Drew realized Mark would be a prime example of someone to emulate.

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_Don't forget to read chapter 2! I've posted it already now. Read all of the coming chapters of my fic, please. And if you're reading it before it's marked as "complete", make sure you follow my story (add it to your "Story Alerts" on this site) so that you get notified when a new chapter is posted!_


	2. Musings on a Wonderful Thing

_**Author's Note: **__Insideavoice beta-ed this chapter for me too, because she rocks. :D_

_I'm so disappointed that there will only be 2 more episodes of Parenthood and even more scared about the fact that it hasn't been officially renewed yet! I think Kristina's cancer storyline and the Ryan veteran storyline gave the show more viewers than ever this season though so I'm not TOO worried. I'm cautiously optimistic that we will get a season 5 and it has the potential to be awesome. ;)_

_I'm happy about the fact that the finale will be airing on my birthday though. :D I get to enjoy a new episode of Parenthood as a way of celebrating. ;) January 22__nd__ is a big day for my TV shows this year; it'll also be the series finale – last episode EVER – of Private Practice. It'll be a new episode of Emily Owens, M.D., which is a show that has been canceled already but still has some new episodes to air and I am quite disappointed that it's already been canceled but I'm enjoying it for what it is while I can. I think it's amazing. And it'll be the first episode of White Collar (another amazing show!) since September. I have no real plans for my birthday but that evening I can be sure to have a lot of fun watching 4 of my TV shows. :D_

_I managed to get this chapter written before 4x14 of Parenthood aired. So I still don't know what happened in it. But I enjoyed writing this chapter, even if it was trickier since it was more made-up and had to be written from scratch. :D_

_I decided to make this chapter a bit shorter, by about 1,000 words. The first one is in the range of 2,900-ish words (if you exclude the author's note) and this chapter is in the range of 1,800-ish. This chapter is only Drew's point of view. Chapter 3 will be only Mark's POV. (Well, it *probably* will be only Mark's pov! But I haven't written it yet so I can't promise anything.) I could've just combined them into 1 chapter but I figure why not just post them separately._

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Chapter 2: Musings on a Wonderful Thing

Drew's heart was still beating a mile a minute as he drove away from Amy's house and back to his own. It was a very short drive, so he had very little time to calm down. His racing heart was a direct result of Amy's father interrogating them. It was an innocent, casual, everyday type of interrogation that usually would not make Drew the least bit uncomfortable… but this time it was nerve-wracking. It took everything in Drew's power to remain calm and keep up the pretense. The man had no idea Drew had just been scarily close to revealing that something was up. Amy didn't know yet if she wanted her dad to know anything, and Drew understood that. Her parents were great, just like Drew knew his mom was, which only made the decision of whether or not to tell them something huge like this all the more difficult. He parked his car and unbuckled, looking over at the guest house where his mom was probably curled up with a glass of wine and a book to read, considering the late hour. He tried to predict what her reaction might be if he told her everything.

As he walked up the pathway towards the main house, Drew remembered back when he had overheard his mom yelling at his sister about birth control. It must have been a whole six years ago now, back when Amber was still a freshman in high school. Their mother had discovered her wild child was no longer a virgin.

"_You're having SEX?!" Sarah bellowed so loudly that it caused even Amber to cower, if only ever so slightly._

"_Uh, yeah, Mom. Relax." Amber covered up any feelings of being intimidated with her tough tone. She regretted nothing. "I'm mature enough. I swear."_

"_You're still a BABY! Fourteen years old?! Oh my God if you only knew how young you still are. Were you even being safe?"_

"_Mom, come on," Amber interrupted. "Let's be real. How old were YOU when YOU got your cherry popped?" She asked it in a playful tone, clearly trying to get on her mom's last nerve. She also, however, was genuinely curious to find out the answer._

_A twelve-year-old Drew was sitting on his bed in their small Fresno apartment. There was no way for him to avoid overhearing this whole heated exchange, regardless of how tired he may have been of his mother and sister fighting all the time._

"_Got my cherry popped? EXCUSE me?!" Sarah was beside herself with frustration and horror._

"_Seriously mom, you couldn't have been much older than I am now. I'm almost fifteen anyway." Amber kept pressing on for the answer. Sarah took a deep breath._

"_For your information, missy, I was sixteen, actually. And I was probably too young still!"_

"_Well whatever. I'm not too young, I promise."_

"_Oh really? So did you use a condom? Wait, how many times have you…" Sarah trailed off, unable to find a euphemism that she'd actually feel comfortable saying when it came to her daughter._

"_We only did it the once, Mom, I swear."_

"_Well one time is enough to get pregnant!" she yelled back at her._

"_What?" Amber replied in shock. Drew's ears had perked up too. He was a little surprised by this information as well. _

"_What?!" Sarah echoed back. "You didn't know that? Oh my god. You're going on the pill right now. I am NOT becoming a grandmother before I even turn thirty-five."_

"_Mom, relax, I can take care of myself. I'll use condoms from now on!"_

"_Well good, because dying from AIDS isn't a picnic in the park either!"_

_Drew sighed from behind his closed bedroom door, wondering if his mom even knew that she'd melded together two different expressions. _

"_And you'll have to take the pill EVERY SINGLE DAY," Sarah stressed. "Every day. Or else it won't even work. And make sure you're careful to use the condoms too. I'm serious."_

"_So you're okay with me having sex?" Amber said excitedly._

_Drew rolled his eyes. Of course not! But his mom was enough of a realist to realize that Amber was going to be having sex whether or not their mother was okay with it._

When he walked into the house, he tried to make it to the staircase without being noticed. He stepped as quietly as possible, trying to even breathe quietly. Despite his best efforts, Camille caught sight of Drew.

"Hi," she said cordially.

"Hi, Grandma," he responded, hoping his disappointment at being noticed was not audible. She was only being polite, after all.

"What were you doing? You just vanished after dinner."

"Oh, I… I had something to return to Amy. She needed it for her homework tonight," he fibbed. In reality, he had not been able to get a hold of Amy all day. After school he had called her, hoping she'd say they could meet up to talk, but she hadn't answered her phone. He called her several times in between trying to concentrate on his homework, but it wasn't until the time when he called after dinner that she finally picked up. She had said, somewhat begrudgingly, that it was alright for him to come by and they could briefly chat in private, using Drew's mom's car.

"Oh okay," Camille replied, satisfied with the answer. She looked over the boy for another moment, evaluating his demeanor. "You alright? I don't think you said a single word at dinner," she noted. "Are you and Amy doing okay?"

Why was everyone asking that? Why did he have to keep lying to all of these kind, well-meaning adults in his life? No, he and Amy were not doing alright.

"Uh, yeah everything's normal. Just didn't have anything to say," he explained as he started to head up the stairs, lingering with his hand on the railing, waiting for his permission to go back into his bedroom.

"Alright. Well, I'll see you at breakfast, honey," Camille finished, granting him his wish.

Drew could not recall a time when closing his door had been quite this comforting. He finally could be alone for real, safe from prying questions and concern emanating from various adults' eyes. Was he sending out a smoke signal, screaming to the world how overwhelmed he felt? He thought he'd concealed his inner freak-out well, but Camille made him doubt himself.

He realized he and Amy had consummated their relationship right here, on this very bed, during his Uncle Crosby's wedding. His mom hadn't found out they had been sleeping together for months after they'd been successfully getting away with it. She had been so upset to find out Drew and Amy were having sex. He wondered if his mom had ESP and literally knew something like this was going to happen. He had thought his mom and Mark had both overreacted at the time. When his mom had yelled at Amber all those years ago, sure, she'd had a point – Amber wasn't even being _safe_ when she did it. But Drew and Amy were responsible and smart, so nothing could go wrong. But here they were. It had. Something had definitely gone wrong.

He glanced over at his alarm clock. Tomorrow was Tuesday, so he could set it for the regular time. But Wednesday morning… God, he didn't even know what time exactly the appointment would be. Nor where exactly this Planned Parenthood clinic that Amy knew about was. He'd have to ask her for the specific details tomorrow.

The appointment would simply confirm what Amy seemed so sure was already true. She was pregnant. Drew knew his girlfriend well enough to know she wouldn't be this upset if there was really any chance it wasn't true. She even had taken a test already, which had read positive.

She was pregnant. The sentence just kept repeating itself in his head.

All day, it had been such a negative, horrible sentence in his mind. Pregnant girls in high schools were sluts. Guys who got high school girls pregnant were never actually "dads". "Losers" might be the more appropriate word. Getting pregnant was supposed to be the _one thing_ to avoid at all costs. He felt like society as a whole stressed avoiding teen pregnancies as more important than making sure kids graduated high school. Everyone knew getting pregnant was the worst thing that could happen. It was akin to the way everyone knew to avoid the plague.

The sentence repeated itself once again. She was pregnant.

This time, hearing the words in his mind, he imagined what Amy would look like at eight or nine months pregnant. He knew she'd be more beautiful than ever if she was carrying his child, regardless of how big she got… regardless of any other changes it made to her body. He flashed forward even farther in his mind, to a time when Amy was holding a newborn child in her arms – his newborn child. Their newborn child. He was picturing a baby boy, in a tiny blue blanket. He remembered the first time he got to hold Nora, only about a year and a half ago. She seemed so fragile, so beautiful… and he recalled the way the whole family reacted to the baby for months whenever they were near her. The baby had the power to make the atmosphere of any room magical.

Drew wanted his own baby, he realized. He really did. It was scary and crazy to start a family when they were still so young, but it was truly what he wanted. Drew was in love with Amy, and had been for over a year. He couldn't imagine ever falling out of love with her. And the idea of _her_ being the mother of his child… he couldn't imagine a better set of genes to meld with his own in such a permanent way. He knew the biology of conception so well - after all it still was his plan to become a Biology Major when he started college. He visualized the raw science of her ovum and one of his tiny sperms fusing, and creating a permanent bond that established what their kid's DNA would forever be. In his mind, this science was romantic and beautiful – it was a literal, physical marriage of souls. He started to make plans for how it would all work in his head; he couldn't help himself. He knew if they needed their families' support, they'd both have it. It wouldn't be the end of the world. He just knew that regardless of how unexpected this might be, parenthood could be a wonderful thing. He hoped Amy would see things the same way.

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_Please don't forget to leave me a review! A simple, "I read this and enjoyed it" is SO much better than nothing, I swear. It would make my day! If you have any constructive criticism of my writing for me too, I'd appreciate any and all helpful suggestions you might have to offer._


	3. Attempt to Discern the Kids' Predicament

_**Author's Note: **__Thank you, once again, to my beta,____Insideavoice. She is very helpful. :D_

_Amanda & Adriana, I wish you had logged in using an account when you reviewed this, so that I could thank you personally and also I wish you both could be following my story so that you could see when the next chapter was posted! I want to thank you both now and I hope you do somehow find and read this chapter here. ;)_

_If you've seen 4x14, you now know that this storyline was just completely ignored. I can't believe they ended 4x13 that way but then decided to just pretend Drew didn't exist in 4x14. I hope in the season finale, 4x15, they will make up for that. :P_

_If you like fanvideos, I'm a vidder – luvtheheaven5 on YouTube, and I also started and run the Parenthood collab group (we make collaboration fanvideos where many of us work together to make each single vid) ParenthoodProdz. I just posted 2 new videos that include Parenthood in them and I'd love your opinions on them!_

_Mark & Sarah and Ryan & Amber are 2 of the 10 couples in this multi-fandom video (7 TV shows total – it also includes Switched at Birth, Smallville, Once Upon a Time, One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls, and Kyle XY) set to "Kiss Me" by Ed Sheeran:_

_/watch?v=xkVwoxLeupo (that's the end of the YouTube url, since I'm not allowed to post full links here.)_

_And:_

_Parenthood: Drew & Amy - ["I Knew You Were Trouble" Taylor Swift song cover by Tyler Ward, Chester See, & Lindsey Stirling]_

_/watch?v=gIGvC4S9OnQ_

_Enjoy! :D_

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Chapter 3: Attempting to Discern the Kids' Predicament

Mark had been obligated to help a student with her college essay before school Tuesday morning, so he didn't have any time to do the people watching he had done the previous day. He was kept quite busy for hours, in fact, and almost forgot about how worried he'd been for Drew until Amy showed up in his fourth period English class. When he saw the girl, everything from yesterday came rushing back. He looked at her closely in a futile attempt to discern how she was doing. Despite the fact that he couldn't really tell what was on her mind, he was at the very least glad to see her back sitting behind her desk.

"Hey, Amy?" he asked her quietly, as he walked around the room while everyone was getting out their homework assignments to turn in. She, too, seemed to have a sheet of used loose-leaf paper to pull out of a folder. She paused and looked up at him upon hearing her name.

"Yeah?" she replied back. He continued in a low volume.

"I just um… wanted to know why you missed class yesterday." He hoped her response would shed some light on whatever was going on with her and Drew.

"Oh, I um…" she trailed off, her eyes darting down and away from her teacher's. She clearly was desperately trying to think up an answer… a lie, most likely. Mark wondered why she would feel the need to fabricate her reason for missing class.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Cyr. It won't happen again," she promised, evading an answer at all. "I found out what the homework was from Emily," she added, referring to her friend who sat a few desks over. He nodded, and then knew he needed to get on with teaching his class.

"Okay, well… good." He smiled at her reassuringly, trying to make it clear that he appreciated that. "And if something is going on…" he paused again, noticing her eyes get just the tiniest bit wider, perhaps in some kind of fear. He instantly felt bad, since he didn't want to upset her. "I just hope you're alright. That's all," he finished. She smiled meekly, hearing him. The smile didn't really reach her eyes, and therefore didn't convince him that she was alright, but still he turned his attention back to the rest of his class. He didn't feel he had much of a choice.

"Please pass your papers to the front!" he said much louder, directing his voice toward the whole class. He headed back toward that end of the classroom, prepared to collect the homework.

* * *

At the end of the school day, Mark again managed to spy on the boy who had almost become his stepson. It looked like Drew was approaching Amy at her locker, which was much farther away from Mark's classroom door, so there was no way to overhear whatever was happening between them. He could, however, see them fairly well.

Amy's body language seemed to imply almost… indifference. She didn't seem to be mad at him, but she didn't seem to be happy to see him either. She didn't turn to look at him when he talked, but she seemed to respond. Drew was already wearing his backpack and Amy now zipped hers up and threw it over her shoulder. They started to walk away from her locker, toward the school exit. They would be walking directly past Mark, so he listened intently by the doorframe, hoping to be passed by unnoticed.

"You know I love you, right?" Drew asked. Mark thought the question didn't sound rhetorical but rather more like the boy was literally pleading for his girlfriend to confirm that she did indeed understand the fact. After a very short pause and no response from Amy, he repeated, "I love you, and… and I just want to be there for you through every step of this. Unless… do you _not_ want me to come or something?"

"I said you could come," she said simply. Mark could barely hear her at this point. They were getting out of his earshot. Yet he still managed to make out her next sentence. "Just… can you leave me alone until then?"

He could tell Drew responded but the words were unintelligible to him. They exited the school together, but not holding hands or touching in any way.

Mark returned to his empty classroom and sat down behind the large desk at the front. He ruminated upon all of it for a moment. Was he making a mountain out of a molehill? Was he really so bored and lonely with his life that he had to become completely invested in the childish love lives of his students? Was his heartache for Sarah turning him into someone who creepily stalked her son? He hoped none of that was the case. He didn't want to be getting all paranoid and overly concerned over an everyday nothingness.

The more he thought about it all though, the more it seemed like something real and serious. Amy had run away from Drew in tears, then missed his class, which was completely out of character for her. And after that, she had been unable to come up with even the most basic excuse for such a thing. Drew had mentioned something just a few moments prior about wanting to "be there for her through every step of this." The day before, Drew had told her, "It's gonna be okay," but Amy had disagreed. Something serious was going on with Amy, if not Drew, too. He finally convinced himself that of course it made sense for him to be worried for the girl, as well as for the boy who seemed to be involved in some way or another. He was justified in feeling worried. He knew he wasn't acting unreasonable. He tried to think about what might be going on with her. Something serious that "was not going to be okay." That Drew needed to be there for her through.

Maybe the girl's parents were getting divorced or something simple like that. Mark knew Drew had been through much more than his own fair share of parent-drama, but Amy's parents were still together if he recalled correctly from the "Back to School Night" at the beginning of the year. He was pretty sure the Ellis couple had been one of the few sets of parents where both the mother and father showed up to the event. Often the married parents would send only Mom or only Dad but not the parents of Amy Ellis, whom he had recognized instantly - they looked so much like her. At the time they had seemed happy, but they might have only been putting on a show which he had fallen for. The trouble in paradise also could simply be brand new. One's parents' divorce could be particularly hard on a child of any age, and maybe Amy was one of those kids who might be profoundly affected by such a change in her home life.

Mark decided to start pulling out some papers to grade. While reaching into his first period folder, another, darker thought crossed his mind. Maybe Amy was sick. Perhaps seriously sick – she could have been diagnosed with cancer or something. He knew sometimes things like that happened even to high schoolers, and often in the case of that particular diagnosis, the sick person was very hesitant to reveal the fact until the last possible second. He recalled Sarah's sister-in-law - Drew's aunt – not telling everyone until after that one baseball game, despite having known about her own breast cancer for weeks. Mark had been there at the time, and even he had felt emotional over Kristina's announcement. He remembered thinking _she_ was far too young for something so serious to be happening to her; it was unfair. But he knew, sadly but surely, cancer did not discriminate. It could come for mothers, fathers, or even beautiful children with their whole lives ahead of them… and if this girl had cancer… he didn't even want to _think_ about that being a possibility.

He started to read the homework assignment turned in by a Douglas Coyne. The handwriting was tricky to discern, as it seemed at least eighty percent of all of his male students' was. He found himself needing to correct something in red ink within the very first sentence, and sighed to himself. Some kids just could not learn even the basics, it seemed.

Around halfway through grading this assignment, a last potential reason for the Amy and Drew drama became evident. He had actually walked in on them both naked, although luckily mostly covered up by the blanket on Drew's bed, only a couple of months ago. How could he have not thought of this possibility sooner? Amy could very well be pregnant right now. He tried to think about what that might mean for both of them. They were so young. They both seemed like very responsible kids, but he knew accidental pregnancies happened to people of all kinds.

If Drew was dealing with any of those issues, he knew the boy was in way over his head. He wished he could help him - wished the boy would confide in him. He cared about both of the kids, and wondered if maybe he should tell Sarah about what was going on. Sarah was his mother, and she would of course want to know that there was something very serious going on in her son's life. He knew where Sarah lived… and also where she worked. He knew could come see her whenever it was convenient for him. The idea of an excuse to see her again he both loved and hated at the same time.

But his thoughts returned to Drew. The boy had been essentially "tattled on" to his mother when Mark had caught him having sex. Maybe Drew felt he couldn't trust Mark to keep a secret because of that. Mark decided he needed to make it clear to Drew that whatever he told him would not be getting back to Sarah, regardless of what it was. He decided the next day, Wednesday, he would approach the kids and make one last plea for them to let him in and allow him to help.

* * *

_Thanks again for reading and thank you to those of you who reviewed or added it to your story alerts or whatever. It means a lot to me. ;) I hope more people add this fic to their favorites or follow the story or review it. I always really get excited when that happens for any of my fics lol._

_I hope you enjoy chapter 4, which I am posting right now too. My beta got both of these chapters back to me at the same time. So I'll just edit it a bit now, and then upload it to this site!_


	4. Amy's Decision

_**Author's Note:**__ Um, this fic is turning into something that is taking me more chapters to write than I originally intended. I'm sorry. It's not completed yet. I'm pretty sure it'll be at least 6 chapters actually, not 2-4 like I first said… not even 5. Chapter 5 will be when Drew finally confides in Mark. I promise. Sorry it couldn't happen this chapter. I had completely intended for this chapter to be that interaction, but as it turns out I had more stuff to write based on what really happened in the show. This chapter (chapter 4) is all Drew's point of view again. Mark isn't even around. Still… I hope you all like it._

_Again, special thanks to my beta, Insideavoice._

_Please don't forget to leave me a review and if you like the fic, add it to your "Story Alerts" so that you are notified when the next chapter is posted._

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Chapter 4: Amy's Decision

Wednesday morning seemed to take forever to arrive, but once it was there, Drew felt like everything was happening much too quickly for him to even keep up. Drew didn't bother to eat anything, but rather simply woke up, threw on some clothes, and snuck out of the house before even his grandparents were awake. He walked into the darkness, through the cool morning air, to his car – the sun wouldn't rise for another hour. Amy had been sure to schedule the appointment at seven sharp so they would definitely be on time for school, and therefore here Drew was, driving to pick her up at only 6:30 am.

They drove in absolute silence, but in Drew's head an eerie song he remembered from his dad played loud and clear. It was a song from the band's very first album. It reminded Drew a bit of Pink Floyd, or when the Beatles were in their psychedelic drug phase, but he wasn't thinking about what drugs his dad and his fellow band members may or may not have been on when they wrote the song. He was thinking about the feel of the music - the minor chords, the muted sound, the simplicity. Everything about this quiet, dark morning reminded Drew of that one song in particular, and given how he essentially memorized the album years ago, it felt too real, as if it were playing now as a CD in the car. He had no idea what Amy was thinking, but he let this song occupy all of his thoughts on the fifteen minute drive to Planned Parenthood.

Drew and Amy walked through the automatic doors together. The waiting room felt even quieter than outside, where at least there was the dull noise of traffic and a few birds chirping as they began to wake up. Because it was so early, the clinic was near empty. There was a woman who looked to be about twenty there, alone, and another young woman there with an older woman, most likely her mother. Drew wondered why these other three people were there. Perhaps one of them had a sexually transmitted disease. Another may have simply thought this was a convenient time to get a prescription for the pill. Maybe he and Amy were the only people currently there because of an unplanned pregnancy.

Sure enough, the pregnancy was confirmed. They were informed of the three options, although of course they both already were aware of them. Abortion. Adoption. Parenting. They had not already been aware of all of the specific details though, and Drew for one really appreciated hearing them. They got back into the car and again drove in silence, this time until they arrived in front of the school. Amy was the first one to speak. She said there was only one option. Drew instinctively put his hand on her shoulder, hoping to maybe show his support in a non-verbal way as she explained her thoughts. He had been waiting for this moment. It was her decision, after all. Right? He couldn't really have a say. He knew that it had to, ultimately, be her decision… and he respected that. He really did. So he listened.

She wanted an abortion. She wanted to make the appointment for tomorrow. She was acting like there truly was only one option. Drew couldn't help but feel as if she hadn't heard anything the kind woman in purple scrubs had told them. There were resources to help out teen moms. There were ways that they could make having a baby work. Even adoption was another option - not that Drew really wanted to consider forcing Amy to go through with an entire pregnancy simply for them to give their son or daughter away. He wouldn't want their child to be raised by other people, but… he knew people like his Aunt Julia and Uncle Joel existed and would be appreciative if someone as responsible as Amy was the person keeping a baby healthy until it was born. Still, Drew didn't want to argue. He didn't want to make his girlfriend more upset in any way. He wanted to just let her decide, and respect whatever decision it was she was making. But here she was, deciding. And he couldn't just let it go.

"Yeah, I mean… she said that we… we have time, though, to think about it. Like a… a week, she said."

"To think about what?" Amy retorted. Drew hated this.

"That's not the only option," he replied, spelling it out for her. She let out a sigh in exasperation.

"If I have this baby, my life is over," she explained sharply, looking Drew right in the eye as she finished the sentence.

"It doesn't have to be over," Drew tried to reason.

"Yes-"

"No it doesn't!" Drew's argued back, raising his voice ever so slightly.

"Yes-"

"We could start a life," Drew stated strongly. Their lives wouldn't be over, but rather just beginning. It could be such a wonderful thing. Why couldn't Amy see that? He saw her face contort in frustration as he continued. "Like, I can go to college. I can get a job. You know, there's plenty of people that would be willing to help us." Amy was shaking her head to the sides, disagreeing silently, seemingly refusing to hear a word he was saying. He was feeling frustrated now too, but he kept on making his case. "And I love you, and that's all that matters."

She still shook her head. She wasn't going to see this side of things, not even for a second, Drew realized. She was sure she wanted an abortion. She must have made up her mind long before that doctor's appointment. Drew let out a sigh in defeat.

"Look, obviously I'm gonna support you no matter what. That's all I'm saying, and... I want to make this work, but… I just don't want you to think that I'm not there for you if you decided to keep it, that's all." He felt like he was about to cry. Amy looked like she was near tears as well. At least he had gotten it all off his chest. He'd put it out there, and now… now Amy knew what he wanted. And she could take it into consideration. He watched her closely for a few moments. She sat there, took a breath, and swallowed.

"I need help coming up with the money," she told him, carefully avoiding eye contact with the boy who loved her. Drew looked away from her too. Now… now it was too painful.

"Okay," he answered simply. That was that. She was having the abortion. And now… now came the time for practical concerns. Money. They would need $350 within a week.

For about five more minutes they sat there in the car, parked in front of the school. They weren't exactly in a rush. Drew wasn't sure what Amy was thinking. She looked out the window and he couldn't help but feel… heartbroken. The disappointment was overwhelming. He was physically mourning the loss of his potential child. It was an aching tightness in his chest and it made him want to scream… or maybe it just made him want to curl up into a tiny ball. He wanted to do both, or either… whichever would help. He wanted to escape this feeling, and just get over it. This was probably for the best, and he knew that, deep down. He tried to feel grateful that Amy was strong enough to make this decision for them. They were too young to be having a baby. There was a reason they called it an "unplanned pregnancy". Kids who still lived with their own parents didn't ever actually decide to become parents themselves while in high school.

"We should probably head inside," Amy commented after a while. Drew knew she was right. Homeroom awaited, for both of them, and he was definitely grateful on this particular morning that they didn't share the same one. Drew knew he needed to attend classes, and let the school day be a comforting escape. They could worry about obtaining the cash later. He took a final breath, then opened his door, leaving both the safe privacy and awful tension of being in the car with Amy. He walked quickly, getting ahead of her… away from her, not waiting to enter the school together. He didn't really feel like even looking at her right now. He couldn't. He didn't think he was strong enough.


End file.
